This historic work consists of several treatises that developed the first consistent, coherent, and systematic conception of algebraic equations. Originally published in 1591, it pioneered the notion of using symbols of one kind (vowels) for unknowns and of another kind (consonants) for known quantities.

Fran90is Viete was born in 1540 in Fontenay-Ie-Comte, which lies in what is now the department of the Vendee and in the historical province of Poitou.1 He was a son of Etienne Viete, a lawyer and a first cousin by marriage of Barnabe Brisson, who for a while was president of the Parlement de Paris. The younger Viete studied first with the Franciscan') at their cloister in Fontenay-the same place in which, fifty years earlier, Fran90is Rabelais had lived and studied for 15 years-and then, when he was 18, at the University of Poitiers. Returning to Fontenay in 1559 with his bachelor's degree in law, he began the practice of that profession. His practice appears to have flourished-he numbered among his clients, we are told, Mary Stuart and Queen Eleanor of Austria-and he acquired the title of Sieur de la Bigotiere. More important for his future, however, was his taking on the legal affairs of the Soubise family in 1564 and, as a consequence of that, his becoming private secretary to Antoinette d' Aubeterre, a member of that family. Antoinette had married Jean de Parthenay\' Archeveq ue in 1553 and he, a sta unch Huguenot, had been in command at the time Lyon was besieged by the Catholic forces. The loss of Lyon led to strong recriminations against him. One of the things for which Antoinette particularly wanted the services of Viete was as an advocate to help her husband defend himself against these recriminations.